The present invention relates generally to computer systems, and more particularly to a system and method for enabling a smooth transition from a first operating system environment to a second operating system environment wherein files associated with each operating system environment are generated from a single source and installed on a target computer system.
Computer systems have forever changed modern society and industry. In recent times, technological changes and innovations relating to computers occur on almost a daily basis. Many of these changes are related to ever more sophisticated computing architectures and designs. For example, in the not too distant past, 8 and 16 bit computing architectures were common-place. As a result, operating systems and associated applications were often times optimized to work within these computing architectures. As microprocessors have evolved, however, 32 bit and 64 bit architectures have replaced the 8 and 16 bit systems resulting in increased performance and productivity. As hardware architectures change, operating system software and related applications are often modified and/or completely re-written in order to adapt to new hardware platforms. Moreover, operating system software platforms are often maintained in duplicate as hardware platforms transition from one design to the next.
As an example of duplicate software platform maintenance, a team of software developers may maintain two or more versions of software relating to multiple hardware platforms. For example, a 32 bit operating system may be maintained via a first set of associated files and a 64 bit operating system may be maintained via a second set of files. It may be desirable however, to have both versions of the operating system track one another during the transition period. For example, if a feature is removed from the 64 bit operating system, it is likely that the feature should also be removed from the 32 bit operating system. Thus, files must be removed from both versions, each operating system must be rebuilt under both versions, and new directories maintained in duplicate to support both operating systems. Consequently, much time and energy is required to maintain both systems. Furthermore, errors are likely to occur since both systems are usually built independently of one another by various developers. Thus, tracking problems between the two operating systems are likely to occur causing unwanted divergence between the two systems.
In view of the above problems associated with conventional operating systems, there is an unsolved need for a system and/or methodology to facilitate migration from a first operating system environment to one or more other environments.
The present invention relates to seamless operating system migration from a first execution environment to at least a second execution environment. A system and method are provided wherein a plurality of operating systems may be generated and installed on a target computer system. This may be achieved, for example, by processing a singular source list associated with a first operating system via a mapping and installation system. This enables newer applications to operate with the first operating system and enables previously written/debugged applications to operate with the second operating systemxe2x80x94all on the same target computer system, if desired. The first operating system (OS) may be associated with an N-bit OS (e.g., 64 bit OS), and the second operating system associated with an M-bit OS (e.g., 32 bit OS), for example. It is to be appreciated that a plurality of operating systems may be built and installed via the mapping and installation system of the present invention.
The mapping system of the present invention enables files associated with the first and second operating systems to be maintained and generated from a singular list of files associated with the first operating system. In this manner, changes applicable to each respective operating system are efficiently managed, maintained and tracked. The installation system relates to installing the N-bit and M-bit operating systems on the target system. For example, a 32 bit OS and a 64 bit OS, may each be installed on a target computer system, wherein 32 bit applications operate with the 32 bit OS and 64 bit applications operate with the 64 bit OS. If a file were to be added/removed to/from each OS, for example, the present invention enables the addition/removal of the file from the 32 bit OS and the 64 bit OS, respectively, via the mapping and installation system. This mitigates managing and changing two separate lists associated with each OS as with conventional systems.
More particularly, the present invention provides a mapping system to determine and generate a combined list of files associated with the first and second operating systems. The list of files may be determined from a single list of files associated with one of the operating systems. A filter is provided to read the single list of files and generate a combined list of build and installation directives for the respective operating systems, wherein the combined directives are employed to build and install each respective OS on a single target computer system, if desired. For example, the filter may automatically generate a list of 32 bit files from a known list of 64 bit files. The files are then built and directed to isolated portions of a compact disc (CD) via identifiers associated with the files. An installation system of the present invention is provided to load the files from the isolated portions of the CD to respective execution portions within the target computer system. In this manner, files may be maintained in a single place and easily maintained and/or upgraded as necessary.